Heck, back when I was consistently oscillating between 200 and 300, I used to play one mortar vs OST. I stopped playing it when I noticed that it did jack-sh*t...
it is surprising,
but sometimes allied mortars simply do nothing at all, i have had several games where my soviet mortar would actively fire shells upon shells, and it would reach veterancy 2 without killing a single enemy soldier (or have less than 3 kills in total)
meanwhile the "weak" leig 18 would get a dozen kills and veterancy 5 in the exact same timeframe and in the exact same game as the 0 kill vet 2 mortar. but then again, rng giveth, rng taketh away, hence i sometimes would strike a bulls eye, just not when it really matters.
its surprising that a pak howi doesn't give the user smoke, i played USF and was surprised that it didn't have it